Australian rules football: Maffra win 2010 Gippsland Football League grand final

September 20, 2010 Maffra defeated Drouin in the 2010 Gippsland Football League grand final. The Gippsland Football League, officially the Gippsland League, is the only major competition in the Gippsland region according to the Victorian Country Football League.

Maffra finished on top of the ladder and won through to the grand final by winning the second semi final against Traralgon, their only match for the finals series.

Drouin finished fourth on the ladder and qualified by defeating Leongatha in the elimination final, Morwell in the first semi final and Traralgon in the preliminary final.

Scores are quoted as goals-behinds (total).

Background
The Gippsland League traces it roots to the Central Gippsland Football League of the 1930's. More recently, it is a merger of the Gippsland Latrobe Valley and West Gippsland leagues and was known as the West Gippsland Latrobe Football League.

"When you say the Gippsland League, people talk about the distance from Wonthaggi to Maffra (170km)," GL General Manager Chris Soumilas told the Weekly Times, discussing travelling times for teams. "They don’t say from Drouin to Moe (40km), or from Moe to Traralgon (32km). Most of our clubs do have the majority of our games within an hour’s drive, but from one end of the league to the other, travel is an issue."

At the league's annual general meeting in December, it changed it's name from the West Gippsland Latrobe Football League. At the same meeting, Wonthaggi joined the GL after dominating the Alberton Football League during the past decade. The Power made five consecutive Alberton Grand Finals winning three, losing only to Yarram (2007) and Stony Creek (2009).

Wonthaggi Power Football Club is a result of a merger between Wonthaggi Blues, a former Gippsland FL team, and Wonthaggi Rovers, an Alberton FL team. In February, the Gippsland Football League announced that Wonthaggi would be changing their uniforms, because their original one was similar to that of Warragul.

Towards the end of the season, Moe had to transfer a game from Yallourn North due to that ground not coping with the stress of hosting extra games. "[T]he Yallourn Nth ground is not coping with the extra Moe home games and the wetter than normal winter," said Soumilas in an email to First XV News. They played their last home game in Yalourn Noth.

The Ladder
Maffra clinched top spot after fifteen rounds of the 2010 GL season. After eighteen rounds of football, they finished on 56 points and 179.45. Traralgon finished second with 44 and 132.34.

Moe, finished third on 48 points and 100.5%. Drouin, finished fourth on 48 points and 100.4%. Leongatha finished fifth on 36 points and 106.81% after they defeated Moe in round 18.

Missing the finals in 2010, in order, Moe with 28 points and 88.1%, Sale with 20 points and 96.08%, Wonthaggi with 16 points and 63.3% and Warragul with 4 points and 38.04%.

Finals Series
The Gippsland League uses the McIntyre Final Five finals system. In this sytem, the top team receives a bye in week one of the finals while second place plays third place in the qualifying final and fourth place playing fifth place in the elimination final.

The teams progressed as demonstrated below.

Grand Final 2010
Three goals each to Gary Jones, Nicholas Horsford and Daniel Bedggood handed Maffra there second premiership in as many years. Having as many scoring shots as in 2009, Maffra straightened the scoring shots - kicking ten more goals this year.

Drouin were not unimpressive as they stayed in the contest for the duration of the match. Jordan Wyatt kicked three goals for the match, while Bob McCallum and Andrew Soumilas put in around the ground.

At the end of the day, Maffra ran out winners 17-17 (119) to Drouin, in their first grand final, 15-11 (101).